What Are the Absolutes

Hi there! I’m Nichole Weaver, Curriculum Director at NRSNG. I am excited to share with you some practical applications and ways to practically implement the Core Content Mastery Method into your content and lesson development. While all four Core Tenets will be incorporated in everything you create – you may not use every practical application every time, and that’s okay. But my guess is that what you’ll notice is that they are pretty universal and actually could be used in every lesson. The first application technique is “What are the absolutes?”.

The reality is that we could teach a million things about any given topic. But, every medication, disease, concept and principle has key factors that must be understood to understand the concept as a whole. So – we want to pull those absolutes out. We choose 2-5 Key Points and tell the students: “Listen, if you’re going to remember anything, these are the things you need to know!” or “If you can get these 3 things, you can remember the possible symptoms”. So – any time you’re creating a lesson or content – start by pulling out the linchpin – the ONE thing that would make everything else fall apart without it. Then, find the 2-5 absolutes – the key points, key takeaways. For example “If you don’t remember anything about diabetes, make sure you know that (1) patients have NO insulin or NOT enough insulin and (2) that insulin works to allow glucose to be used by the cells for energy. (3) Without glucose, cells can’t function correctly and the body has to adapt. And finally, (4) the glucose ends up floating around in the bloodstream causing a super high concentration or osmolarity in the blood.”

Practically, what I usually do once I’ve created my linchpin is I create this slide. Now, you’ve probably seen – I usually use this as a recap at the end. But – when I create lessons, I actually start here!! Now, it doesn’t mean you can’t change them up as you develop your lesson – maybe you find another point that is more important than one of the ones you chose – that’s completely fine. But ultimately you should have 1 linchpin and 2-5 key points and your entire lesson should be built around these things. If you find yourself trying to decide whether something is important enough to include in a lesson – come back to these things. Does it apply to the linchpin or one of these key points? If not – ask yourself if it’s important enough. Do you need to make a change to the top 5? Or maybe you included 3 key points and you’ve discovered a 4th, that’s fine too!

So…linchpin…2-5 key points…then build your lesson like a wagon wheel around it!

Okay! So that’s the first way to put the Core Content Mastery Method into practice. Now, go out and be your best self today – and, as always – happy nursing!